Help please? Meal ideas for a cancer-treatment patient friend.
Posted by Heliamphora on Mar 06, 2009 · Member since Oct 2006 · 4798 posts
My sister knows a guy who's once again undergoing cancer treatments, and he's been prescribed a healthy, veggie-rich diet. Going by these guidelines...
"...can’t have gluten, wheat, sugar (natural or processed so no fruit), meat products or by products, no eggs or white rice. He can only have tomatoes, eggplant, carrots, onion, garlic, beets, capsicums, broccoli, cauliflower, any soy products, tofu, nuts, purified water, brown rice, celtic salt… there are a few more items but this is most of it."
...can you folks recommend some nice dishes, please? 'fraid I'm not so good at this level of healthiness on a regular basis, so I ask for help. ::) ;D
How about a minestrone style soup? Can he have beans? It's filling but not rich, so if he's nauseous (chemo?), then it should be easy on his stomach. This soup is really good and could be tailored to his needs (omit the noodles or use rice noodles):
http://www.recipezaar.com/Copycat-Olive-Garden-Minestrone-Soup-by-Todd-Wilbur-77585
Ratatouille (I probably spelled that wrong)
Lasagna using thinly sliced eggplant instead of lasagna noodles, with tofu ricotta
An Indian mixed vegetable curry of some kind (carrots, eggplant, cauliflower, onions and garlic in a tomatoey sauce), served over brown rice
Baba ganouj and carrot sticks, broccoli/cauliflower florets, capsicum pieces etc. for dipping
Stir fry with mixed vegetables and tofu over brown rice
Um...there are probably several soup and casserole options, but I can't think of any atm.
eta: Stuffed eggplant or stuffed capsicums, using any mix of the other vegs he's allowed to have, plus tofu and/or brown rice. You could incorporate nuts depending on the filling.
Brown rice pilaf
Hi,
I don't post much but have a few suggestions. My mother passed from cancer last August and I watched her lose her appetite fairly quickly. I just recently went through a bad spat of pneumonia and only now know what true nausea really feels like. If I had known more about the healing properties for certain things we vegans love (i.e. nutritional yeast, organic whole soy) then I feel it would have helped my mom a bit.
*I definitely don't recommend anything spicy, garlicky, tomatoey, or ethnic. Keep it simple, no more than 4 ingredients at a time. He will probably appreciate it. Try and think more along the lines of Thanksgiving/Baby food/Southern comfort. Peruse your library for a veg-friendly cookbook.
* Try to find organic soy yogurt- it still has probiotics in it. Wildwood is a great brand. Yogurt, dry toast, and any applesauce w/out spice with fluids is good for snack or to start the day.
*Make a casserole combining brown rice, a vegetable steamed and mashed, along with nutritional yeast sauce.
*Puree good squash (butternut or acorn) or sweet potatoes until smooth and pour over brown rice, or if you can find them, tiny brown rice noodles for a change.
*If he can tolerate tomatoes (my mother couldn't) make a no-pasta lasagna. Use thinly slices of tofu and alternate with tomato slices and nutritional yeast sauce, filling with any thin pieces of veggies he can manage. Or sprinkle in the nutritional yeast and top with marinara.
*Very creamy lentil or split peas soups
*Soak beans overnight to help digestion and use white or lima to make a smooth "dip" he can eat by itself or alongside something else.
*Cooked greens, warm and smooth, maybe add some nutritional yeast and soy milk here to make it more of a gravy and serve on quinoa.
*Roasted eggplant until it melts in your melt, mashed alongside some brown rice or gluten alternative.
*Baked creamed corn. But, inside of the sugary canned cream corn, go for the frozen kernels and make creamy by adding nutritional yeast and/or soymilk. Puree half of it, combine and bake.
*Fresh carrot juice by itself is a great drink.
Avoiding anything processed as much as possible always helps. Don't worry about making it taste good to you- he just needs to keep the nutrients down. So find out what he can handle or go for a few things and maybe some he can freeze too. Good luck.
Hope this helps!
KP
Also check out these website: http://www.rwood.com/Articles/Tasty_Wheat_Alternatives.htm
http://www.vegparadise.com/otherbirds43.html
I have a friend who is battling cancer and is not doing very well. She has people cooking for her every day, but she said what she really wants is some fresh fruit! Get whatever is in season and cut it into little pieces. Mmm! Who wouldn't like that?
Thanks so much for the suggestions! I'll pass them along. :-*
Have you seen The Hallelujah Diet and The PH Miracle Diet. They are both Cancer fighting based diets. They are also great information sources for prevention. Filled with recipes, food combination's and suggestions.
The Hallelujah Diet has religious and spiritual things through it, which is not my thing but the science and nutrition info is dead on. The PH Miracle and Ph Miracle Diet are both AWESOME references for nutrition and cancer fighting nutrients. (plus they taste great!!)
Hi,
I also wanted to add to look for Matcha tea, a fine green tea powder. It tastes bad and is more expensive but is claim to have lots of healing properties. You can make it hot or how I like it is just add a little hot water to 2 tsp. in a glass, stirring until dissolved, then add some agave nectar and fill the rest of glass w/ cold milk. Vanilla almond is really good. Add some ice cups if you want and it's very refreshing in the morning.
KP